We're pretty lucky to have a good trick or treating neighborhood! Not only is it a quiet old neighborhood with friendly neighbors, but we live immediately across the street from the biggest, oldest CEMETARY in town! We get usually between 40 and 60 kids, and we give out juice boxes in addition to candy. :D

Soon, we won't be able to flip the light switches THROUGH the wall anymore! (sad)

Walls are going up all over the place! The exterior wall is DONE, top to bottom. Our drywaller neighbor Brian is a star! When we got home and I saw that the whole exterior wall was purple, I jumped right in and finished the bottom half of two smaller walls behind the sink, and hooked up the sink so we can wash our hands again. (yay!)

What's left is 5 more sheets of purple moisture resistant for the bathroom, and 10 sheets of regular stuff for the hallway.

This project is finally coming together - we've come a very long way from that dark hallway with 3 closets.

It happens to be my birthday today, October 26th.
It also happens that we just got all the ceiling drywall hung. It has yet to be taped/mudded, but it's up!

Our neighbor Brian came over while we were at work during the day and he nearly finished the ceiling before we got home!
I was so excited to see some progress being made that I finished up the last two bits and cleaned the whole construction zone.

It's exciting to think just what we can do once the walls are enclosed!
* Primer/Paint
* Electrical fixtures finished
* Mount the sliding door and hardware
* Trim the door and window

The past two weekends, we've been putting the ceiling up. I don't have a drywall lift and the 5/8 inch moisture resistant panels are incredibly heavy, to the point that I can only lift 1/2 sheet up at a time by myself.

Last night, Z and I tried together to lift a full sheet up with two 'lift poles' - T-shaped poles made from 2x4s. The panel was slightly too large to fit in the space, but I tried to fit it anyway by forcing it - not such a great idea after all. While trying to get it positioned, it shifted very fast and dropped from the support poles onto the sink, breaking one of our fluorescent lamps, and all three fluorescent tubes. *fck*

Fluorescent tubes, if you're not familiar, have mercury vapor in them. It's not a lot (you probably get more from eating fish regularly), but just to be safe, we closed the door to the master bedroom and opened all the windows to let it out.

After a nice half-hour break sulking downstairs, I went back up and immediately cut the sheet of drywall in half. Significantly lightened, it went up with no no complaints! I think I'll stick to half sheets from now on. :P

We are making progress, but the gaps between the panels are huge (1/4-1/2 inch). Nothing is square in this house, all my measurements need to be triangulated or nothing fits right. Our neighbor will be coming over tonight to help us with tape/mud - he does drywall for a living and I'm hoping he's a genius at it - It'll take a lot of work to get this ceiling smooth!

We have maybe one more sheet to put up in the bathroom, then a few more for the hallway. From there, the walls will be a breeze.

Sorry, no pictures of the ceiling yet. I don't take photos when I'm swearing and muttering under my breath. :P I'll snap some later and put them up.

It has been a long road, but we are finally ready to put drywall up in the new bathroom!

Our local drywall guru (Brian from next door) is going to come over and help us some time to put it up.

I had to do several things to prepare for the drywall, so in the last few working days, I've been busy:* pulled all the electrical boxes forward so that they protrude 1 inch from the studs* ripped out some old, rotted wood where a window used to be because it stuck out further than the rest of the studs* sealed up any areas where there was no blue jeans insulation because of settling* cut, installed and foil-taped 1/2 inch polyisocyanurate insulation over the wall insulation - this acts both as a vapor barrier and a thermal break between the drywall and the studs* sealed with expanding foam, any gaps between the polyiso and electrial boxes, pipes, etc. This will quite literally be the tightest wall in the entire house.

I calculated that this one wall in the upstairs bathroom will have an R-value of over 20, while the rest of the exterior walls are a drafty 12 to 15-ish